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A brand strategy blog - by DenVanMon, 21 Mar 2016 16:24:11 +0000en-CA
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3232Hashtag branding: 7 social media lessons from #HeartMyYOWhttp://www.begtodiffer.com/2016/03/21/hashtag-branding-heartmyyow/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2016/03/21/hashtag-branding-heartmyyow/#respondMon, 21 Mar 2016 14:48:35 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3541UPDATE! As of 11 AM, diagnosis apparently this project is running all day, web so you can still Tweet to the @CBCOttawa hashtag I discuss below. This morning, I heard Robyn Bresnahan on the CBC Ottawa Morning radio show telling listeners to Tweet photos of a day in the life of Ottawa before 8:30 AM, so they […]

UPDATE! As of 11 AM, diagnosis apparently this project is running all day, web so you can still Tweet to the @CBCOttawa hashtag I discuss below.

This morning, I heard Robyn Bresnahan on the CBC Ottawa Morning radio show telling listeners to Tweet photos of a day in the life of Ottawa before 8:30 AM, so they could win a prize package. I got excited! Then I got lost….

7 Lessons on Hashtag Branding

1. #BALANCE! Brevity, clarity, consistency.

Hashtags are hard. Let me say that first. It’s hard to get a hashtag short enough to be Twitter-friendly but yet intuitive enough that people can clearly see what the Hashtag is about.

But a hashtag for a Twitter project or event is also a BRAND. So as a branding and social media guy, there are a few lessons that I’d like to pull out of this story for those of you who might need to develop hashtags in the future. (Or contact me now if you really need help fast!)

In this case, I wasn’t listening closely to the radio, and by the time I realized I wanted to participate they had moved on to the news. I thought I heard Robyn tell us to hashtag “Heart My Ottawa”, but I wasn’t sure. And since incorrect spelling makes a hashtag useless, I needed to check before I Tweeted.

2. #USEIT! Make sure your people USE the tag first and often.

Being uncertain,. My first step was to go to the @OttawaMorning stream on Twitter. Turns out, they hadn’t used or mentioned the hashtag at all today. Neither had host @RobynBresnahan, CBC social media guy @Luccidor (who wasn’t at work as I later found out) or a couple of other CBC accounts I checked. And worse, despite the major media push, it wasn’t trending in Ottawa on Twitter either (right).

3. #ABBREVIATEWITHCARE! Use easy-to-interpret short-forms.

So I searched on Twitter specifically for “HeartMyOttawa”. Sure enough, the Tweet at the right came up – the most relevant thing I’d seen yet. But it was the only one.

But then I looked at the embedded CBC Ottawa graphic “Aha!” I thought. It’s supposed to be “#HeartMyCity”. So I searched… and… no luck. #CelebrateOttawa didn’t work either. Neither did #HeartMyOtt, #LoveMyOttawa, or #LuvMyOtt.

So I started thinking, is there a new way to add an actual HEART SYMBOL into a hashtag that I somehow missed…?

4. #YOWDOINGITWRONG! Avoid cool-kid slang.

But then, Robyn came to my rescue on the radio – kind of. She mentioned the contest again. And now I heard it clearly: “#HeartMyYOW“.

Now as most people in Ottawa know, “YOW” is the airport call symbol for Ottawa. And, I knew that along with the “613”area code, YOW is occasionally used as slangy shorthand for Ottawa – but mostly among Twitter power-users. But it’s not as widely used as the much more intuitive “Ott”, as used in long-running hashtags #OttNews #OttWeather #OttPoli or #OttCity. One look, and it’s clear to everyone what “#OttNews” is. “#YOWNews” just doesn’t scan.

So I finally had the right hashtag as of around 7:45 this morning and began using it myself. But even so, there were only a dozen or so Tweets to that tag by that point in the morning – with the 8:30 deadline looming. So I’m guessing I wasn’t alone in having trouble.

5. #CONSISTENTGRAPHICS! Manage the visual ID

But that’s not to say the CBC hadn’t been *trying* to brand and promote the hashtag. They’d used it before in February, and for months it seems, they’d been recruiting partners and local celebs to promote today’s effort – as with this Tweet from last week.

But the technical problems with the hashtag were compounded by a scattered design effort. Take a look at the three graphics on the right. All three are ostensibly supporting the same project. But the visuals are all so different, and the wording so all over the map, that you can understand how those of very little Monday morning brain (like me) could get confused.

If #HeartMyYOW is the tagline, and the whole project is meant to happen on Twitter, “#HeartMyYOW” needs to be the headline, logo, and call-to-action everywhere. And the visuals need to be packaged and managed like a brand for maximum impact.

6. #IFYOUTAGITOWNIT! Be part of the conversation.

Apart from making sure staff and social media accounts had been using the hashtag correctly before the conversation/event, it helps to ensure there is a human being actively engaging on the hashtag during the intended window of activity – particularly if that window is before 8:30 AM on a Monday morning (which, by the way, is not a great time to ask for photos of the city – as most people are either just waking up, having their coffee, or commuting).

The @CBCOttawa main account did get back to me as you can see – shortly after I’d figured it out for myself. As did @RobynBresnahan herself. So credit where credit is due – and thanks for the help!

7. #TALKTOME! Branding and social media are what I do.

In the end, eventually several dozen people did actually manage to Tweet their photos to #HeartMyYOW before the deadline. So this wasn’t a failed project by any stretch. But it could have been more successful, with a bit of help.

And that’s where I come in. I’m a branding guy AND a social media advisor (geek) AND a really active community promoter in Ottawa. So please please talk to me or Tweet to @DenVan if you have a local project you’d like to promote on social media, a Twitter hashtag dilemma, or just want to bounce an idea around! I’m happy to offer a few words of branding or social media advice to worthy causes, charities, and public good groups for free – EVEN THE CBC!!

If it’s a larger strategy project, training session, or if you need advice for your for-profit company, contact me anyway! For you, I’ll be happy to let you buy me coffee/lunch/beer and give you some thoughts, and a quote for more of my professional time and energy.

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2016/03/21/hashtag-branding-heartmyyow/feed/0An Instructive Moment in Racist Crazytownhttp://www.begtodiffer.com/2015/12/11/an-instructive-moment-in-racist-crazytown/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2015/12/11/an-instructive-moment-in-racist-crazytown/#respondFri, 11 Dec 2015 14:48:38 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3530Spoiler alert: the ending will surprise you It began with a Tweet. This morning, ed MSNBC news anchor Rachel Maddow posted the thought below – which was of course meant to contrast the current anti-Muslin insanity infecting huge swaths of public opinion in the States, viagra approved with the more welcoming tone of recent Canadian […]

It began with a Tweet. This morning, ed MSNBC news anchor Rachel Maddow posted the thought below – which was of course meant to contrast the current anti-Muslin insanity infecting huge swaths of public opinion in the States, viagra approved with the more welcoming tone of recent Canadian efforts to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees as quickly as possible.

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2015/12/11/an-instructive-moment-in-racist-crazytown/feed/0Ottawa Citizen “reinvents” logo, Website, the wheel.http://www.begtodiffer.com/2014/05/20/ottawa-citizen-re-design/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2014/05/20/ottawa-citizen-re-design/#commentsTue, 20 May 2014 14:22:25 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3386My take on the new Ottawa Citizen design – and my hope for better in the future. So here’s the big story in my local paper: “Postmedia and the Ottawa Citizen today unveil a reinvention of the local news business.” But after looking it over, approved it’s not the local news business they are re-inventing. It’s something far […]

]]>My take on the new Ottawa Citizen design – and my hope for better in the future.

So here’s the big story in my local paper: “Postmedia and the Ottawa Citizen today unveil a reinvention of the local news business.” But after looking it over, approved it’s not the local news business they are re-inventing. It’s something far older. Something that already works…

Here’s my take on the ad campaign that accompanies the launch.

The Ottawa Citizen is Ottawa’s oldest newspaper, tracing its roots back to 1845, when it was called The Bytown Packet then renamed The Citizenin 1851 – right around the time we were undergoing our own rebranding from Bytown to Ottawa. Over the years, the paper has undergone a lot of changes and reinventions, some in response to competition, many to suit the tastes of new owners – most recently a series of “media conglomerates” like CanWest Global and now Postmedia.

But through it all, The Ottawa Citizen has been the capital city’s paper of record. Which is why I continue to subscribe, and care, through their recent declines and cuts, and even though I get most of my news online. Even more, I want my paper to get better. I want it to become the kind of paper other towns envy.

But the sad truth? Most “old media” newspaper-driven brands are going through hard times. Declining ad revenue and increasing competition for online eyeballs are even requiring radical rethinking at old stalwarts like the New York Times. (Thanks Mark Scrivens for the Twitter tip-off).

The strategy represents a bold investment in the future at a time when many newspapers are retrenching under pressure from an industry-wide slump in ad revenue.

“We’ve reinvented each one of our products from the ground up — from a completely blank canvas,” said Wayne Parrish, chief operating officer of Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and the man in charge of transforming the business.”

Okay. But as I tell clients, there is no blank canvas. Ever. The key to any renovation is to build the new structure (or brand) on its historical strengths. And the strength of a newspaper is the the quality of its ongoing writing and editorial choices, coupled with breadth of its coverage, and the depth of its ongoing reputation and archive. It doesn’t matter what platform, those are the keys. So users need to be a. hooked by compelling words, b. driven by relevant topics, and c. drawn into a relationship over time.

So even before the ink dries on day one of the new regime, let me risk a few quick thoughts on the logo, Website, and paper redesign. I’ve got a lot more to say – particularly about the mobile app, but let’s save that for another time.

The new logo: From classy to slap-dashy.

The new masthead image moves from the current image on the left – which is classy, iconic, and rooted in the serious journalistic heritage of the newspaper – to the one on the right. Now I get that they want to make it more “mobile friendly”, but it comes across as a cramped, washed out, generic abstraction of itself. It looks like an afterthought.

The new Website: content-lite

The biggest problem with the new home page is that it no longer looks or feels like a news site. There are lots of photos and headlines. And ads. Oh yes, lots of those too. So there’s a lot to look at; just not a lot there.

It’s hard to find meaningful organization of topics and headings, there are very few text summaries of article content (and those too short), and it’s also missing other context points like author info, time-of-posting, and related articles.

Basically, it looks like an entertainment Website, not a solid, content-rich news source. And this is exactly the opposite direction than most news sites are moving. Those sites take their cues from online content powerhouses like Gawker, Slate, BuzzFeed, and the Huffington Post, which are moving toward more text content on their home pages, but with better organization.

So it seems clear that they spent a great deal of their “four-platform” energy on the paper itself. But again, note the drastic reduction in the amount of content on the page and the huge blocks devoted to design elements. They seem to be taking cues more from a “quick read” media brand like USA Today (see below) than from respected, authoritative news sources like The New York Times, Toronto Star, or even the Huffington Post.

Maybe I’m wrong. Actually, I hope I am. But I can’t help but be a little sad seeing my local paper trying to emulate these guys:

It seems like this is the online and offline model the Ottawa Citizen is aspiring to.

Update: as of 4pm, I see the Citizen has already made a number of fixes over the course of the day. A few typefaces and design elements have magically neatened themselves up. So this is a work in progress – and hopefully it will only continue to get better. But I’m interested in your first take. What do you think of the new direction? Please leave a comment!

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2014/05/20/ottawa-citizen-re-design/feed/5Telco Brands: the Fair for Canada FAIL in one picturehttp://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/08/08/un-fair-for-canada/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/08/08/un-fair-for-canada/#respondThu, 08 Aug 2013 13:37:29 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3369Rogers, viagra order Bell, website and Telus blow their big chance. By being themselves… My friend Ottawa blogger and media commentator Mark Blevis has put out a couple of smart and incisive critiques of the “Fair for Canada” campaign by Canadian telco mega brands TELUS, unhealthy Rogers, and Bell. Please do go ahead and read […]

But I think the many, many problems with this PR blitz can be summed up in one picture – brought to you by your three friendly Canadian mega corporations.

Actual screen capture from the Fair for Canada mini-site:

Sorry big Telcos, but the combined “Bell, Rogers, and TELUS Boards of Directors” writing a letter to Stephen Harper doesn’t qualify as “What Canadians are Saying” to the rest of us, you know, Canadians. Neither do the rest of the links below it – all from media outlets and corporate lobby groups. There is not one individual Canadian quoted.

And I *may* be wrong about this, but that pretty lady in the picture looks more like a member of a Stock Photo Catalogue than like one of the only seven women out of the 39 Directors who signed the letter (three of whom also have the last name “Rogers”).

(A quick aside for TELUS: in this context, it’s probably better not to highlight the fact that two of your Board members have the nicknames “Rusty” and “Dick”. You’re welcome – DenVan.)

Still not convinced? Okay, how about a picture AND a video?

So how about the video they posted showing a few “ordinary Canadians” – who also happen to work for the big three. Again, if you want to tear apart the content, there’s plenty there to dissect – as Techvibes editor Knowlton Thomas did with this quote:

“That’s not real competition,” says Amanda, a call centre trainer for Rogers in Moncton, in the video. She’s speaking of the government allowing a fourth legitimate carrier into the market – you know, to create real competition. Like the other telco employees in the cringe-worthy video, you can practically see the puppet strings tied to her jaw.

And yes, it’s obviously heavily scripted, and these employees are hardly neutral observers.

But here’s what really baffles me: they didn’t post that video to YouTube! That embedded video above is a pirated version of the “official” one on the Fair for Canada site. Why? Because the original is posted in a non-social video player called Wistia (American by the way). No comments. No share button. No easy embeds. No messing around with openness, fair access, or ordinary plebeian social tools.

And of course, no Facebook “Like” button either. Or a Twitter icon – or any social icons at all. And certainly no mention of the issues that really matter to Canadians: prices, decent (non-arrogant) service, and fair competition.

So what do you think? How about rebranding this campaign?

Canadian Telcos tell you what “fair” means

Shut up and let us control all the channels!!!
Because we still think we can.

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/08/08/un-fair-for-canada/feed/0Farewell to a fearless storyteller. Alex Colvillehttp://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/07/17/farewell-alex-colville/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/07/17/farewell-alex-colville/#respondWed, 17 Jul 2013 14:16:31 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3351Please join me in sharing an Alex Colville Painting today on Facebook I noticed an interesting and powerful trend among my Facebook friends today. In honour of Canadian artist Alex Colville – who passed away in Nova Scotia yesterday at 92 years old – they’ve been sharing his work through their cover photos, this web […]

So I joined them…

I have been deeply inspired by Colville since I was introduced to his paintings in grade nine by Mr. Ross at Confederation High School. My teacher was a die-hard fan of strictly realist art and had little time for abstraction or “fakery”. But still, he loved Colville and praised his work loudly as an example of the triumph of realism.

I loved it too, but for the opposite reason. I loved how Colville could take “realistic” scenes and elements, strip out many key details like shadows and blemishes to focus on simple forms, and create this mythical, dramatic, and often creepily ominous moment. Every Colville painting made my head spin with stories and questions.

And seeing them again has made me want to see, share, and experience more.

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/07/17/farewell-alex-colville/feed/0Social Media Case Studies: my students want to write yours!http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/06/21/social-media-case-studies/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/06/21/social-media-case-studies/#commentsFri, 21 Jun 2013 14:53:30 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3343My Algonquin College students need real world subjects for their social media case studies. As many of you already know, abortion when I’m not doing my regular brand naming, information pills storytelling, cure and strategy gig with Brandvelope Consulting, I moonlight as an instructor in the Social Media Certificate program – teaching professionals how to use […]

In the next two weeks I’ll be starting two new versions of the Applied Social Media in Business class – the one week Accelerated version starting on Monday, and the seven week evening program starting Tuesday, July 2.

The Applied Social class is all about studying and developing real world social media case studies. We try to help our students understand in practical terms how social fits into real world workplaces and business strategy situations. From customer service to research, content marketing to old-school promotional marketing, small business to agencies to big brands. We try to cover a mix.

But the case study needs to be REAL: And this is where we need your help.

You see, I’m insisting that my students write case studies about real word social media campaigns, causes, and strategies. And these students are almost all entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, 0r communications managers themselves, so the feedback they provide is consistently solid and valuable.

So please consider volunteering to be the subject of a social media case study!

Here’s how it works:

Volunteer in the comments: give a brief outline of how your business uses social, and your contact info in the comments below (Twitter is fine).

My students will choose from the options and contact cases that interest them.

They will set up a brief 30 minute interview with you by phone, Skype, or Google Hangout.

The interview will follow the basic outline below.

The student will develop a Case Study – highlighting your challenges and approaches, and ending with their ideas and recommendations.

The student will share the final Case Study (confidentially) with you. And it will be up to you and the student if it gets shared beyond that.

Outline for my student’s Social Media Case Studies and interviews

1. Business profile:

Type of business – describe product / service / cause.

Position of interviewee – how they – and their boss – define success at work (beyond social).

Unique challenges this business or team faces.

Business goals that can be used as Key Performance Indicators.

2. Social marketing situation:

How active and strategic have they been on Social?

Platforms? Content? Campaigns? Niche audiences?

Who does the work and how engaged are employees / management?

How successful have they been at setting and measuring KPI?

3. Opportunities:

Where do they see Social going?

What would they like to try if they had time, staff, and/or resources?

What do they need to get better at.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS

This is the final section the students will be developing in their Case Studies. And these will be outsider recommendations as if they were consultants helping a client improve their Social Media strategy. So these need to be based on solid critical thinking, but constructive in nature.

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/06/21/social-media-case-studies/feed/22Sports branding: Senator’s arena becomes Canadian Tire Centre. Sigh.http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/06/18/canadian-tire-centre/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/06/18/canadian-tire-centre/#commentsTue, 18 Jun 2013 19:54:14 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3334Another stadium re-branding: we’re more than just tired. So you’ve heard about the Ottawa Palladium? How about the Corel Centre? Scotiabank Place? Well forget about them all. As announced this morning, stomach Ottawa’s professional hockey stadium is about to change its name for the fourth time since 1996. The good part… Okay, I’m a […]

So you’ve heard about the Ottawa Palladium? How about the Corel Centre? Scotiabank Place? Well forget about them all. As announced this morning, stomach Ottawa’s professional hockey stadium is about to change its name for the fourth time since 1996.

The good part…

Okay, I’m a branding guy. So I get the naming rights game. I’ve been part of board room decisions around JetForm park, and I worked at Corel during 1996. Big brands will pay a LOT of money to get their moniker on the side of a stadium, and into the mouths of fans and broadcasters. And that’s all good.

And we could choose a much more embarrassing corporate partner than Canada’s iconic automotive / hardware / electronics / now grocery brand. We could have a “Sleep Train Arena” like the NBA team the Sacramento Kings, or “Dick’s Sporting Goods Park“, the home of the Colorado Rapids soccer team.

And it sounds like the Senators ownership team actually chose this partnership:

Senators owner Eugene Melynk said of the discussions leading up to Tuesday’s official agreement. “The possibilities kept growing and growing and growing. They made up their mind pretty quickly. After that, they moved so fast. In the end, it’s very extensive. You’re going to see a lot of big changes.”

The annoying stuff…

Here are a few reasons this name change is annoying to me – and if Twitter is any guide (and it is) – it’s annoying many other Ottawa fans as well. Yeah, we’ll get used to the new name. Again. But before the anger dies, some thoughts on stadium branding.

Another name: it’s hard to really develop affection for a brand – any brand – if it keeps changing its name every few years. I had just gotten used to saying “Scotiabank Place”…

Generic corporate blandness: 86 out of the 111 stadiums for the “big 4” professional sports leagues have generic brand names. That’s 78%. A massive majority of hard-to-differentiate place names. Try this test: tell me where the Pepsi Center is. Minute Maid Park. Gillette Stadium. See? They could be anywhere.

Back to “Centre” again? The word “Place” wasn’t exactly rocking anyone’s world, but I counted: 17 out of the 30 NHL teams play in a building called “The <Brand Name> Center” or “Centre”. That’s more than 56% of teams in the same league calling their building the same boring thing!

Lack of emotion: Distinctive names aren’t just more interesting and unique, they are durable. San Francisco sports fans demanded the return of “Candlestick Park” after 3M, then Monster.com bought, then abandoned the naming rights. That’s a strong brand!

You can be creative: Scotiabank also sponsors the Saddledome in Calgary, or as they call it “Scotiabank Saddledome”.

Palladium is a strong name: and this is the kicker. We once had a strong, completely unique name for the stadium, and it’s still used as the street name for the stadium itself. There is no other Palladium in North America. And “Canadian Tire Palladium” isn’t so bad is it?

But enough about me: what do you think?

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/06/18/canadian-tire-centre/feed/6Social media infographics: fight data fudge!http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/05/16/data-abuse/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/05/16/data-abuse/#commentsThu, 16 May 2013 16:22:11 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3320Data fudge is everywhere. But it seems particularly rampant in infographics shared on social media. Okay, medical I love really good charts and graphs – and nerd out about elegant infographics like ones I grew up with in National Geographic, troche or those shared regularly in FastCoDesign. But no matter how pretty the picture, what about the data […]

Case in point. This week, Jim Dougherty shared this Infographic, questioning the infographic’s data and particularly this statistic: “90% of all organizations use content in their marketing”. Hmm. Really?

Fight the fudge!

So I decided to do some digging. And before I knew it, I’d created an infographic of my own…

Here’s some advice based on only one data point: one awfully skewed statistic in a recent Demand Metric infographic.

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/05/16/data-abuse/feed/4Technology brands: hey “Cloud” product names: QUIT IT!http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/04/15/product-names-cloud/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/04/15/product-names-cloud/#commentsMon, 15 Apr 2013 19:10:46 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3166Dear brand managers: please get your heads out of the “cloud”. Okay, page I get it. The word “Cloud” is hot right now on planet Software Development. All the biggest online players in the world – from Google to Microsoft to Apple to Adobe – are launching “Cloud” versions of their software. But using the […]

Okay, page I get it. The word “Cloud” is hot right now on planet Software Development. All the biggest online players in the world – from Google to Microsoft to Apple to Adobe – are launching “Cloud” versions of their software. But using the word “Cloud” in a product name for a software brand? I Beg to Differ.

Hear that? Joni’s talking about clouds – your favourite topic! Now, she’s talking about old fashioned air-clouds not cool Internet clouds. But listen when she describes them as “Bows and flows of angel hair/ And ice cream castles in the air”. See? She’s like you. She agrees that clouds are really, really cool.

And from way up there, those awesome, baroque cloud swirls look kind of like what the concept of “Cloud” software looks like to you technology brand managers, and especially the product developers you usually report to.

It’s a magical fairy tale kingdom of Internet-delivered goodness that just makes so gosh-darned much sense.

Why wouldn’t people want the latest version of their software delivered by magic from the heavens?

Why wouldn’t they want to switch from buying boxes of plastic disks to online subscriptions?

Why wouldn’t people want to store their personal files in the wondrous land of “feather canyons”?

Why wouldn’t people LOVE such a super-convenient, and low-cost method of delivery?

View from the ground: rain and snow on everyone

But as Joni said, clouds look very different when they are looming over your head: “But now they only block the sun./They rain and snow on everyone”. Funny, but that describes how I feel when I look at a name like “Adobe Creative Cloud” or “Sales Cloud”.

Think about the product name “Sales Cloud” by Salesforce for a moment. Salesforce.com virtually invented the market for Internet-subscription software for business – or “software-as-a-service” as we used to call it in high tech board rooms. Customer Relationship Management was the first “killer app” and it made Salesforce into a household name.

But Salesforce.com never needed to say “Cloud” before because they were all-cloud, all the time: cloud storage, cloud subscription, browser-based cloud usage.

Get started with the world’s #1 CRM sales app: Improve sales productivity, boost win rates, grow revenue. With Salesforce Sales Cloud you get all the CRM capabilities you need to connect with customers…

Funny, in the olden days, they would have just said “Subscribe to Salesforce.com”. Because that’s their real product name. It’s not a cloud. It’s a subscription.

The problem with clouds? They’re bloody CLOUDY.

So let me say this once and for all: the cloud is not a software product. It’s not a place. And it’s certainly not a thing I can buy. It’s that murky Internet space between me as customer and you the vendor. And so it’s not something I want to focus on, it’s something I want to see through to the real value for me on the other side. And if you’re doing your job as a brand manager, you’ll use product names that help me understand – and buy – your stuff.

]]>http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/04/15/product-names-cloud/feed/2Tweets in space: Col. Chris Hadfield takes Social Media into orbithttp://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/02/13/tweets-in-space-col-chris-hadfield-takes-social-media-higher/
http://www.begtodiffer.com/2013/02/13/tweets-in-space-col-chris-hadfield-takes-social-media-higher/#commentsWed, 13 Feb 2013 16:13:16 +0000http://www.begtodiffer.com/?p=3298Suddenly, unhealthy the cold wastes of space seem a bit more human again. If you aren’t following Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield on Twitter, viagra approved Facebook, or through the Canadian Space Agency YouTube channel, go, now, and follow this man. Share his stuff. He’s doing more to inspire a generation of star-struck kids than […]

The quote and the photo are from Canadian Astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield’s magnificent Facebook stream.

When I shared the Facebook update above, my old college buddy Lloyd responded with this:

Commander Hadfield is the best thing to happen to the Canadian space program since they put a bottle opener on the end of the Canadarm.

And it’s true… except for the bottle opener part (note to Space Agency – get on that!). But in thinking about it a bit more, I responded with this.

Actually the best thing to happen to space exploration period Lloyd. He’s the most articulate, personable, plugged-in astronaut ever. And he’s just so golly-gee-whiz THRILLED to be doing what he’s doing. It’s a nice change from the boring old business-as-usual.

And more importantly, he’s a storyteller. He’s a creative guy who shares his photos, his songs, and the wonders of weightless living with this incredibly, engagingly geeky, enthusiasm. It’s clear that he loves his job – and okay, that part is easy; he’s an astronaut after all. The thing he does better than anyone is bringing us along for the ride – and making us fall in love with space all over again.

But as great as all of that is, I wonder: How far beyond Canada’s borders is Col. Hadfield’s social media brilliance reaching? I’ll put the word out to some social media analytics gurus for their thoughts – updates to follow.

UPDATE Feb 13:So it seems pretty clear that Hadfield hasn’t broken out as an international phenomenon yet. I received this update from my friend, the digital monitoring ninja Mark Blevis. Of 120,934 tweets mentioning @cmdr_hadfield (Feb 1-today).